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Topic: Next Vintage Emulations? (Read 47338 times)

1. Roland VP-330 ( simple 10 band vocoder with strings-human voice , paraphonic machine,played by all the major musicians and groups in the '80s, the string/choirs behind all '80's Vangelis recordings and Laurie Anderson's "O Superman" masterpiece!)

2. ELKA Synthex ( Jarre's main synthesizer, even today !)

3. Marion System MSR-2 (Well this latter isn't really serious but, if you can' t use the Oberheim TM you can always build a rare and sweet-sounding synth that Tom Oberheim himself designed!!!)

These are the last big ones I can think of that haven't been emulated yet and that shouldn't have too much legal issues. Of course the market right now is starving for any classic Roland and/or Oberheim. Just to list a few of the "must be emulated" list:

Roland Jupiter 8 - with some features of the Jupiter 6Roland Juno 60 - with some features from the Juno 106Roland SH-5 - Perhaps the best of the SH seriesRoland System 100 - Classic Roland modularOberheim OBX - with the modulations of the Matrix seriesSCI Pro-One - My favorite monosynth!

And here's some classics that have been emulated but are older generation VSTis and I think need to be redone:

PPG Wave - the Waldorf version is 80% there, just the filter is not quite right.Prophet 5 - same thing, about 80% there. I have the Creamware version that nails it.

These are the last big ones I can think of that haven't been emulated yet and that shouldn't have too much legal issues. Of course the market right now is starving for any classic Roland and/or Oberheim. Just to list a few of the "must be emulated" list:

Roland Jupiter 8 - with some features of the Jupiter 6 Roland Juno 60 - with some features from the Juno 106 Roland SH-5 - Perhaps the best of the SH series Roland System 100 - Classic Roland modular Oberheim OBX - with the modulations of the Matrix series SCI Pro-One - My favorite monosynth!

And here's some classics that have been emulated but are older generation VSTis and I think need to be redone:

PPG Wave - the Waldorf version is 80% there, just the filter is not quite right. Prophet 5 - same thing, about 80% there. I have the Creamware version that nails it.

Synthex, yes! I proposed it too some time ago, the hardest things to do are in my opinion the Chorus circuit and the 4 track sequencer

VCS3: clever idea too but let's keep things as they were, i.e. monophonic with a poliphony given by more instances

System 100: agree too, even if it was a very simple synth ....In my opinion it would be nice to see come the VP330 out, it had tons of personality even if it was a simple vocoder\string\choir machine......but I think that to emulate Roland stuff will be much harder on the label\logos permission side....

Wave...well some days ago I thought about the Waldorf Wave , that huge keyboard of mid-90s which expanded the PPG capabilities to unimaginable : formant synthesis, 8-op FM, sample treatment, simply a miracle keyboard!

anyway I need the most important thing for the moment: will the actual synthesizers be improved!, especially the CS-80V

On Oberheims I'd rather prefer the OBX than the OBXa because it had the original SEM lowpass and a wilder sound than the "a" model (listen to Queen's "The Game" !).

I never listened to a Chroma as far as I remember so I couldn't tell if I would like its sound or not....however the original user interface was simply AWFUL :shock: :shock: !!

I think that Arturia legacy misses a vocoder, so why not a virtual Roland VP330 ? Well the hardest thing to emulate would be the Chorus because it sounds unique, and the only improving I would make would be a switchable option between "real" behaviour ( which means Paraphonic, frequency divided full polyphony ) and a "synthesizer" behaviour at limited polyphony ( 6 or 8 voices ) but with a correct "Reset" or "Cycle" assignment...

And lastly a digital one....I've already proposed a Waldorf Wave because in my knowledge it is the most powerful digital synthesizer ever made...it did also an 8 operators FM , just like it was on ancient Yamaha GS-1 !!![/b]

Well, to what it seems there a little community of Synthex fans is growing ( Xav, d'you remember when I came out with this a couple months ago while breaking your balls with CS-80V issues :wink: ?? ) ....let's admit it, Synthex was very undermarketed at the time but it needs to be buried out as it had real analog balls despite a digital tuning control ( show me how many DCOs at the times were able to do wild PWMs as Synthex's and I will say these are DCOs too!). What I liked in the past of Synthex was its inner Sequencer. it was maybe the first multi-timbral sequencer in history, all 4 tracks you could chain as you liked to get impressive sequences and by playing with the joystick you could achieve some sort of "morphing" too, this in 1983!

For the rest...

JP-8 is already emulated by Roland itself in the Vari-OS (name Vari-OS8)

Prophet VS is already emulated with name "Vector Sector", especially designed by one of the original "VS" team at SCI

Synthi AKS is already emulated with a good Mac emulation ( at present I don't remember the site,sorry )

The Jupiter 8 emulation on the VariOS is very weak. Much like Steinberg's Minimoog emulation Model E. Roland even admitedlly said that they were just trying to have the flavor of the Jupiter series but not emulating any of them particularly. Same thing with their JP-8000 which I had and did not sound like a Jupiter even though it carries the name. Same goes for the SH-32 and Juno-D, which just carry the name for marketing purposes. There's no decent software emulation of any Jupiter currently (same for Oberheims). If legal issues weren't a problem, Rolands and/or Oberheims would get my vote instead of a Synthex. Also, a Roland or Oberheim emulation would also sell more IMO